TAG Heuer, Google, and Intel announces Swiss smartwatch collaboration; Patek Philippe introduces Calatrava Pilot Travel Time; Happy Sport Medium Automatic Two Tone by Chopard

Company News

TAG Heuer, Google, and Intel announces Swiss smartwatch collaboration

During the first day of Baselworld, TAG Heuer, Google, and Intel announced a partnership to launch a Swiss smartwatch powered by Intel technology and Android Wear. The effort signifies a new era of collaboration between Swiss watchmakers and Silicon Valley, bringing together each company’s respective expertise in luxury watchmaking, software and hardware according to Jean-Claude Biver, President of the Watch Division LVMH Group and CEO of TAG Heuer.

The collaboration was made official at Baselworld, during a joint press conference held at the TAG Heuer booth in the presence of David Singleton, Director of Engineering for Android Wear, and Michael Bell, Corporate Vice President and General Manager of Intel’s New Devices Group.

According to Biver, the three companies will work hand in hand to create a product that is both luxurious, and seamlessly connected to its wearer’s daily life—a culmination of innovation, creativity and design from Silicon Valley in California and the Watch Valley in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland.

"Swiss watchmaking and Silicon Valley is a marriage of technological innovation with watchmaking credibility. Our collaboration provides a rich host of synergies, forming a win-win partnership, and the potential for our three companies is enormous," said Jean-Claude Biver.

Product Launch

Patek Philippe introduces Calatrava Pilot Travel Time

For almost 80 years, Patek Philippe has defied time zones with disconcerting ease. In 1959, its patented Travel Time mechanism became its own legend, and in 1996 attained a new level of perfection. When the local time hand is moved forwards or backwards in one-hour increments, an isolator uncouples the time-zone mechanism from the main movement. These adjustments therefore have no influence on the amplitude of the balance or the regularity with which it oscillates, hence the watch's precision is unperturbed. This sophisticated device has been incorporated into the 324 S C FUS calibre inside the new Calatrava Pilot Travel Time Ref. 5524 with centre seconds, date shown by hand, and a heavy central rotor in 21K gold.

Happy Sport Medium Automatic Two Tone by Chopard

In 1993, Caroline Scheufele dreamed up one of the most fascinating jewellery innovations in recent decades. With its famous moving diamonds dancing across the dial, the Happy Sport rapidly established itself as a Chopard icon. It has been interpreted over the years through countless evocative identities, sometimes with humour and consistently with elegance. For its 20th anniversary in 2013, it added a mechanical dimension to its bewitching charm. Chopard now introduces a new two-tone setting for this automatic movement, featuring a case and a bracelet creating extremely refined contrasts between steel and pink gold.

Jaquet Droz introduces Grande Seconde Deadbeat

Deadbeat seconds is an extremely rare complication first introduced in the Age of Enlightenment, the very era when Pierre Jaquet-Droz was travelling the length and breadth of Europe to present his timepieces to royal courts across the continent. This technique means that the seconds hand no longer moves in a smooth sweep, but instead in one-second jumps, thus enabling extremely precise measurements. This horological miniature marvel is now revived by Jaquet Droz, which reinvents its Grande Seconde for this purpose. The historically off-centred seconds hand now takes its place at the centre of the dial, while the space traditionally reserved for it is occupied by the retrograde date display.

Répétition Minutes Hannibal Westminster Carillon Tourbillon Jaquemarts by Ulysse Nardin

Ulysse Nardin brings history to life with a retelling of Hannibal's epic march over the Pyrenees and the Alps by elephant, in the third century B.C. In its latest creation, the Manufacture portrays Hannibal on horseback, in the thick of the action, surrounded by his loyal warriors riding elephants. All these characters have been transformed into jacks and are sculpted in white gold, as are the landscape and mountains in the background. The entire scene is set on a dial in genuine Alpine granite.

Harry Winston presents Midnight Feathers Automatic 42mm

In 2012 Harry Winston brought together two age-old forms of expertise that, until then, nothing had destined to meet: watchmaking, the infinitely complex art of time measurement, and plumasserie, the rare and almost forgotten craft of creating art from feathers. The new Midnight Feathers Automatic 42mm now leads us on a fascinating journey into the deepest realms of the animal and plant kingdoms, for the colours of the feathers suggest the amber-tinted roots of vetiver, bulrushes and cedar wood. Each watch is a unique experience as each hand-crafted dial naturally varies with the individual feathers and the master craftsman's touch.

Perrelet launches Turbine Skeleton

A concentrated blend of more than 200 years of horological heritage combined with a resolutely innovative spirit, the iconic Turbine by Perrelet gets a complete makeover to welcome its first skeleton movement: redesigned dimensions, new aesthetic details, an evolution in materials. An authentic ode to transparency, the Turbine Skeleton reveals the internal structure of its entirely openworked Manufacture P-381 calibre. Exalting the beauty of this sculptural composition, the black aluminium turbine is fitted directly on the under-dial, itself openworked, so as not to obstruct the view of the heart of the watch.

Franc Vila presents Inaccessible Tourbillon Répétition Minute

This flying tourbillon combined with a minute repeater is distinguished by characteristics that are unique in their kind – starting with the choice of platinum for the case and bezel. While admittedly very prestigious, this material is rarely used in this type of watch, since its density is considered not ideal for propagating sound. Small matter.

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